


Mountain Man

by KristannaFever



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Kristanna, Modern AU, Smut, so you know..., trapped in a cabin with one bed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:22:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23364655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KristannaFever/pseuds/KristannaFever
Summary: Kristoff lives a solitary life off the grid in the wilds of Alaska.  He is a mountain man in every sense of the word.  When his supply pilot Anna is forced to stay with him and wait out a winter storm, his world is thrown completely out of balance
Relationships: Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 84





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Collab with Lukin08

Kristoff woke well before the sun, getting an early start on all the things he needed to prepare before the winter set in and he would be unable to navigate the hundred or so miles to the closest settlement of people.

He rolled out of bed into the chilly air, heading straight for the stove and stoking the hot embers back to life before throwing on a few logs. It only took a minute for the dry wood to catch and the fire crackled to life. He closed the stove door and grabbed the kettle he had filled from the well the day before and placed it on the stove to boil.

He stripped naked and put on his long-johns, a heavy wool sweater and his insulated Carhartt overalls, then sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on two pairs of thick wool socks before strolling over to the front door where he grabbed a heavy toque from a hook and pulled it over his head. He then shrugged on his coat and trudged outside.

His breath came out in thick white wisps around his head as he lit the propane lantern on the porch and made his way to the chopping block. It took him three days to fell enough dead trees to have enough wood to get him through winter. Now all he needed to do was chop the dizzying pile he had amassed at the edge of the small clearing where his home was. 

He chopped and stacked wood until there was enough light in the sky to see, then he whacked the axe into the chopping stump and turned off the lantern on the porch, not wanting to use any more fuel than absolutely necessary.

Kristoff went inside and made himself some porridge and coffee with the boiling water on the stove. He ate while he stood and looked out the window. The ground was dry and brown and he knew it would soon be blanketed with snow. He loved the winter. Trapping was better, things were quieter and there was no better feeling than thawing out in front of his stove after being outside in the frigid temperatures all day. The only thing he missed in the winter was the sun. By the time the winter solstice rolled around in Alaska, there was just under four hours of daylight. 

He ate quickly and gulped down his coffee, planning to take the morning to walk the trap line. Without snow it would take him almost the whole day to walk the loop. He almost preferred it, taking the opportunity to maybe happen upon a moose or caribou. He relied on the game meat to sustain him through the long winter, and he had yet to bag one.

He turned his face to the lightened sky, surveying the big system that was moving in. He knew it was coming even before he went outside that morning. He could feel it in his bones. He thought he wouldn’t be able see it until the afternoon but it seemed to be moving in quicker. Either way, he would be able to use his snowmobile tomorrow.

He set out, the routine and familiarity of it driving him forward with its monotony. Then, about a quarter of the way down his trap line, he heard a faint sound. Kristoff paused, holding himself still as he tilted his ear to the sky. He heard it clearly then, the sound of an engine coming up the valley. There was only one person it could be.

“Crazy woman,” Kristoff muttered and shook his head. He turned around and headed straight for the cabin.

He hadn’t expected the delivery until after the storm had passed over. It was a big system, but he had no way of knowing just how big. He just hoped that she would he able to fly back through it safely.

The first of the flakes started to fall just as the small clearing came into view. He turned his head to the sky, surprised to see that they had started already. He surmised a low-pressure system was pushing the storm into the area faster than he had anticipated. Faster than Anna had anticipated too, otherwise she would have waited until it was over to make the delivery.

He walked over to the dirt landing strip just as she was pulling up to a stop.

“Are you crazy?” he asked as soon as she set foot on the ground.

“Just shut up and help me unload this shit. I have to get back out in front of this thing.”

Kristoff glared at her and started to help unload the plane. The pile on the ground grew as they pulled out all of his things. The snow had started to fall faster, blanketing it all in a layer of white.

“Fuck,” Anna muttered. “Can you grab your shit real-quick while I unload the rest? I have to go.”

Kristoff turned to go fetch his things when his instinct told him to glance up at the sky again. It had darkened considerably. It was a surprising, even to him, and he knew better than anyone how fast the storms could move up the valley. In all his years, he’d never seen a system sneak up so quickly.

He turned back, cursing under his breath, steeling himself for what he was about to say.

“I think you should stay and wait it out.”

She poked her head out the open door as she threw a sack of rice out onto the ground. “Are you crazy? Come on, hurry up and load in your things. I have to leave in the next ten minutes if I am going to fly around this thing.”

“Fly around it? Are you kidding? You’ll run out of fuel before you’ll fly around this thing, just look at it!” He gestured impatiently to the sky.

She threw out another bag and slid to her feet on the ground, walking up to him and getting into his face as much as her short stature would allow. “Get your shit, or I am leaving without it,” she growled. 

“Anna, don’t be stupid! Look at the sky! This system is already here. You’ll die out there if you try and get back.”

Anna bared her teeth at him and turned her eyes upward, taking a closer look at the clouds and how far they stretched. She had to blink against the flakes that were now falling steadily into her eyes. She dropped her head and let out a string of swear words as she walked back to her plane then went inside. Kristoff half thought that she was actually ballsy enough to try getting back, when she threw out the engine cover a minute later, followed by more swears. Kristoff was surprised to hear so much cursing.

He walked over and helped her cover the engine without a word while she glared around the entire time. He had never seen someone so pissed off.

“Knew I should have fucking waited, what was I thinking?” she was muttering under her breath as she helped him carry his supplies to his cabin. “Fuck Anna, you are the dumbest of dumb.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “Stop muttering. It’s really annoying!”

Anna didn’t offer an apology but she did shut up. Kristoff sighed in relief of the quiet as the rest of the supplies were stored in his supply shed attached to the side of the small porch of his cabin and the food placed in the cellar.

When everything was put away, he went to take off to attend to some of the skins that needed to be soaked since his plans to walk his trap line had been interrupted.

“Wait, where are you going?” Anna called after him.

He stopped, reluctantly, then turned around. “Have shit to do.”

“Well what do I do?”

He shrugged. “Don’t care.” He really didn’t, and turned back to finish his work while there was still light in the sky.

~ ~ ~

Anna sat down on the porch and put her head in her hands. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have gotten herself into this mess? Was she really that cocky? Or perhaps she was that reckless?

She had been sure she could get out in front of the storm, sure that it was as slow moving as they had said on the weather channel. Even though her better judgement had told her to turn around half way there, the business side of her mind chided herself for all the fuel she would waste in doing so, therefor, she had pressed on. 

She sure as hell regretted that now, facing a couple of days with a lunatic who chose to live this insane life of isolation. Anna rubbed her face in her hands hard enough to hurt and started to curse at herself again. 

She stayed on the porch a long time, having no idea what to do. There was the smell of a fire in the air and the smoke wafted by every so often. Anna wondered briefly what Kristoff was doing. It wasn’t long before she pushed it from her mind in favor of more self loathing.

It was just about dark by the time he sauntered back up to the cabin. He paused as soon as he noticed her sitting there, shivering her ass off.

“Seriously?” He was incredulous. “You didn’t go in and stoke the fire or anything?”

“Well, I would if you had asked me to!” she spat back, shaking from the cold.

“Jesus,” he muttered, shaking his head and walking past her into the cabin.

Anna stayed on the porch a moment, not sure if she should follow him, until she heard his impatient voice from inside.

“Oh, for fucks sake, you can come in!”

Anna scowled at the door before she walked in. He was kneeling in front a wood stove, gently blowing on the kindling he had stacked. Anna watched as the flame started, igniting the thin sticks of wood. He waited until the fire was a bit bigger before he added a log, then another. As soon as the big pieces of wood were burning well, he shut the door and got up and walked over to his small, rustic kitchen.

Anna sighed and took off her boots and moved to sit in front of the fire to warm up. 

He was making something in silence. Anna wanted to talk to him, but she thought it best to keep her mouth shut. Maybe if she was quiet and stayed out of the way he would be able to ignore her presence and she wouldn’t be such an inconvenience, even though she knew how hard that was going to be. Already she was itching to say something. To apologize, to ask what he was making, to see if he needed help, where she would be sleeping, how long he thought the storm would last, and _so_ many other things.

She resigned, thinking about how she was going to last a couple days in the middle of fucking nowhere with a crazy mountain man. Anna looked around the stark cabin, noting that he had a small shelf with a dozen or so books. Other than that, she could see no other forms of entertainment. She realized how quiet it was too. The only sounds were of the crackling fire and Kristoff moving about in his kitchen, which was really nothing more than a couple cabinets and a worktop. To say the next few days were going to be a challenge, was an understatement. 

She stared transfixed into the fire as she was thinking over her life choices, when he cleared his throat and spoke. 

“Food’s ready.”

Anna stood to face him. The food he had made was on the table and he motioned for her to sit. She stood there for a moment, watching him, really not too sure what to do. Obviously, he had forgotten that there was only one chair at the table and she was not about to inconvenience him by taking his only seat.

It took him a moment, as he slowly surveyed the direction of her gaze until he finally realized what she was thinking. He didn’t say anything as he pulled on his boots and opened the door. He slammed it behind him and Anna was left standing there wondering what the hell she should do, when he burst back in with a large tree stump in his hands. 

He shucked his boots, using each foot to get the other off with the huge chunk of wood still in his arms, then he walked over to the table and placed it in the corner on the other side. He sat down on it then motioned impatiently for her to do the same. 

She sat quickly in his chair and started to pick away at the food. It was some kind of gamey meat and some kind of bitter grain. Completely sustenance food. No flavour. Anna thought about the steak that she was going to make herself for dinner when she got home and her stomach growled. 

They ate in silence, Anna trying to cut the meat as small as possible as to make it easier to chew. She kept taking short glances at Kristoff, unable to keep her eyes off him for too long. It was as if she was waiting for a conversation to start, but he only looked down at his food, hunched over and eating with efficiency. 

There was no pleasure in his movements, no need to reflect on the meal or company that was never there. Anna sat transfixed on his face, trying to find some explanation that made sense to her to leave everything behind to hide up in the mountains. It was so much softer than she first noticed. Behind the wilds of his beard and hair was a gentleness she hadn’t been able to see past his gruff demeanour. If his beard was gone, he’d look so much younger. Anna thought Kristoff was probably her age, maybe only a couple years older, if even. He must have looked like a baby when he first ventured here. Her eyes set on his cheeks, still rosy from his quick task outside to gather the stump, then to his nose that fit his face so perfectly, and finally to those amber eyes that were looking back at her.

“It’s been awhile, so correct me if I’m wrong. But where I grew up, I was taught it was rude to stare.”

“What?” Anna said, coming out of her trance. “No! No, no, no. I wasn’t… Okay I was, but not really. I wasn’t _at_ you. I didn’t mean anything by it. I promise!”

Kristoff shot up, pushing the stump back with his legs as if it were a feather. He silently grabbed his plate and walked over to the counter placing it down. Anna turned and watched as he moved to the door, putting his boots back on and coat.

“Where are you going?”

“To the shed,” he answered, with no other explanation. “Try not to destroy anything while I’m gone.”

He threw the rest of his gear on and reached for the door.

“Wait!” Anna exclaimed. Kristoff paused, the door already partially opened. “I’m sorry, Kristoff. Really.”

He turned his head slowly to look at her. For a split second, his eyes were soft and he went to say something. Then he seemed to change his mind and steadied his look back at the door. 

“There’s an outhouse, fifty paces from the end of the porch. Ropes connected between them. Don’t let go of it if you can’t see with the snow or it gets dark. You’ll never find your way back and I won’t go on a suicide mission trying to find you if you get lost.” He went out without a further word or glance in her direction.

Anna sat at the table, chiding herself for what she did. As horrible as this situation was and as disagreeable as Kristoff was, he had still let her into his home. She was probably one of only a few people, if anyone, who had ever set foot in the cabin besides Kristoff. After some time, she looked around, trying to see if there was anything she could busy herself with. 

She settled with cleaning up their dinner. Anna found a pot and went outside to fill it with snow. She set it on top of the wood stove and waited for the water to heat up enough to be used to properly clean the dishes. She may not have been living up on this mountain for years, but she damn well knew her way around a campsite and had enough sense to figure out how to clean up a few plates and utensils without running water.

After she was done, Anna shook her head marveling at how long such a simple task had taken. But she had done it on her own and Kristoff probably wouldn’t even acknowledge her helping out. She shook her head at the thought only stopping at the growl in her stomach. Dammit, she was still hungry. How did Kristoff eat like that and stay as big as he was? Anna looked around, trying to find something to do and keep her mind off her churning stomach.

She didn’t go looking for them. They were just sitting there on the edge of the counter by the wall. The metal was so shiny and just begging for her to take a peek. Anna pulled the box over towards her and lifted the lid. It was the same large tin she had at her home full of delicious chocolates. The enticing scent filled the room. She looked down and noticed only a few were gone from the top level. 

The first bite of chocolate was like heaven. Anna leaned back against the counter with a large smile on her face. This was a nightmare of a day and there was no immediate end in sight. Alaskan storms could rage for days, weeks even and she had no idea when she was going to be able to get back home. This small piece of chocolate gave her a bit of solace. She’d need it to put up with Kristoff for however long she was sentenced to be here.

Anna had just put the tin back and was popping a second chocolate in her mouth when Kristoff walked in. He took one look at her hand, still holding the tin and then to her and his face fell. She watched him with curiosity as he removed his boots and layers. He walked past her, a scowl set on his face. 

It took a moment for the understanding to hit, washing over her like a giant wave. “Oh my God Kristoff, I’m so sorry! I didn’t-”

He looked over to her. “Think? Of course you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t. It was just there and I have the same one at home and I was still so hungry. I shouldn’t have done that. Not without asking. Or you offering.” Anna’s shoulders fell. “I just forgot for a second where I was.”

Kristoff bent down to grab some logs for the fire. “Forget it. I barely eat them anyway- only for special occasions. Don’t even order them. It was a gift from my parents.”

“A gift!” Anna exclaimed. “Ohhhh no, that just makes it worse. I’m horrible. A horrible, horrible person, invading your life and making you miserable and stealing presents from your family.”

He stood up, wiping his hands on his pants then. “Relax. It’s not a big deal. Just… Just don’t do it again, okay? Not without asking anyway.”

Anna nodded her head and looked back at Kristoff. “So, what now?”

“Now,” Kristoff answered with a yawn, “we go to bed.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collab with Lukin08

“Crawl in. I’ll stay on my own side, don’t worry.”

Anna looked from him to the bed and back again, and hesitated. She absolutely did not want to share a bed with him. Then again, she also didn’t want to sleep on the hard floor. 

His head dipped with impatience and she quickly scrambled under the covers, making up her mind. He got in beside her, and true to his word, he placed himself as far away from her as possible. She had to wonder why he would build himself a double bed in the first place since he had chosen to live alone. Then again, he was big, wasn’t he? And the bed wasn’t exactly a queen size or anything. Just a worn-out double mattress. She could feel the dent in the middle that his body had made from years of sleeping on it. 

Anna shut her eyes and tried to fall asleep. She could hear him breathing long and slow behind her, but felt that her presence was preventing him from his slumber. She was in the same boat after all.

She laid there for an eternity, trying in vain to quiet her mind and pass out. The thing that kept her firmly awake was that it was starting to get cold. He had stoked the fire before they retired, but with only two measly logs. Had it been Anna, she would have stuffed the thing to its gills before even thinking about trying to sleep.

_I am freezing!_

Anna tried her best to stay still, not wanting to inconvenience him any more than she already had, and in his own bed for fucks sake! She tired to warm up by gently rubbing her hands up and down her arms, but it was no good. The shivers took over and it only took him a fraction of a second to notice.

“Cold?”

“Y-yeah,” she couldn’t stop the chatter of her teeth as she spoke. “How can y-you s-stand this?”

“Used to it I guess,” he murmured before she felt the bed move under her and all of the sudden there was an incredible warmth pressed against her back. 

She let out a surprised “Oh” and he was quick to respond.

“Listen, it’s just going to get colder and this is the best way to stay warm. But if it bothers you, I can try set you up a bed on the floor in front of the fire, but you’re going to have to keep waking up to stoke it if you want to stay warm and it’s going to be uncomfortable.”

“No, this is… fine. It’s fine, thank you.”

His body relaxed around her and his arm gently laid across her side.

“Thanks for cleaning up,” he said. 

Anna could feel his warm breath on her neck and tried to take her focus off of that.

“It’s the least I could do. And I am really sorry about this,” she started. “I had no idea that the storm was going to shift like that and come in so fast, and I thought I could easily get out in front of it and get back in time. I guess I should have known. These things change so quickly that even the weather forecasters can hardly keep on top of it. I just wish that I would have taken a moment to-”

“Anna,” he said, with a touch of impatience in his tone. “I have a very, very long day tomorrow and I am dead tired.”

“Okay.” She said quietly.

Anna tried to settle down, but her mid wouldn’t stop racing. “I don’t know how you live up here the way you do. I wouldn’t make it without chocolate or sweets or something, you know. Just a little bit, but I don’t know what I’d do if I ran out. I mean, how does one live without chocolate? I am really, really sorry about that by the way. I don’t know where my head was. I’m bringing you extra boxes in the spring to make up for it. And then you don’t have to ration them so-

“Anna,” Kristoff said again, a little shorter this time. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but can you just _shut up_.”

“Sorry!” she said a little too loudly, followed up by another whispered “Sorry, not another word.”

He mumbled a ‘ _thanks’_ and was snoring lightly behind her a minute later.

To say she was a little uncomfortable was an understatement. She was in a strange man’s bed and he was holding her. Well, she could certainly think of worse places to be, that was for sure. And he was certainly a handsome man, wasn’t he?

_Wait, What?_

Just because he was good looking… okay he was really, _really_ good looking… but just because he was pleasing to look at did not make the awkwardness any less. She realized in fact, that it actually made it worse.

With a sigh, Anna closed her eyes and tired not to think about her current situation. It took a long time, but she eventually fell asleep.

*****

She woke when the wonderful furnace she was sleeping next to left the bed. Anna rolled over to where his body had been to try and capture some of the remaining warmth, shutting her eyes again and hoping to just go back to sleep. It was still dark out and she was not by any means an early riser. 

She knew she’d be unable to get back to sleep when Kristoff started moving about the cabin. His morning routine proved not to be a quiet one and he wasn’t even trying to make it that way. Why would he, really? She was an intruder in his space after all. She could not expect that he would try and be quiet just for her. The thought was a nice one anyway.

The noise of his movements was amplified by the small space. The sound of metal hinges as he opened the door on the stove, followed by the sound of logs being thrown into the metal box. She heard something else clink against the stove; something else metal. Probably a kettle.

Then she heard his footsteps approach. He walked through the entryway into the room with a lantern in his hand stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw Anna’s open eyes. He sighed. 

_Did he roll his eyes?_

He set the lantern on a small table by the bed and went to wood chest that she assumed he had made. He pulled out some clothes before disappearing back into the main part of the cabin and she realized that he was changing out there because she was in his bedroom.

Anna stayed where she was until she heard the front door open and shut, then she slowly untangled herself from the flannel covers and took to her feet, thankful that Kristoff had left the lantern in the room so that she could see where she was going. 

She really hoped that the storm would let up soon. The thought of having to spend a lot of time with Kristoff wasn’t an overly appealing one, mainly because she knew for a fact that he wished she wasn’t there.

She grabbed the lamp and wandered out of his room – which was really nothing more than an extension of the cabin separated only by a wall that stretched barely half way to the other side – then took a look around at what she could get busy helping him with. Since she had no idea what he was doing outside, she took it upon herself to try and see what there was to make for breakfast. 

Anna looked through the dozens of glass jars filled with all kinds of different dried goods when she spotted oats. With water already set to boil on the stove, she grabbed them from the shelf, hoping she recognized them correctly as the quick cooking kind, then got a bowl to mix it when the water was ready. She peaked in all the cupboards above his kitchen work space to see if there was anything to put on the plain oats. There appeared to be nothing. 

It would have been nice if there was a little sugar or something, or some fresh cream to pour onto the cooked oats, just to give it some sort of taste. She sighed, forgetting that such things to him were most likely unnecessary luxuries. 

Anna was just pouring the boiling water in the bowl of oats when Kristoff came back into the cabin with an armful of wood. He went straight to the stove and stacked it in the open cabinet beside it, before standing back up and seemed to suddenly notice that Anna was cooking.

If he was impressed or annoyed, she could not tell. He showed her no discernible emotion before going back outside for what Anna assumed would be another arm-load of wood. Her assumptions were correct when he returned a moment later.

After the wood was stacked by the stove, he came back over to where Anna was stirring the oatmeal and opened the cupboard. He reached up to the top shelf, way in the back where Anna couldn’t see, and grabbed a small tin. 

“Here,” he said, and opened it to reveal brown sugar. Although it looked hard as a rock, it appealed to her nonetheless. 

He seemed resigned to let Anna finish making breakfast as he took a seat on the log at the table and waited. Anna put half the cooked oats into the only other bowl she could find and brought them with two spoons and the sugar to the table. Kristoff dug into his breakfast right away while Anna started chipping a few chunks of the sugar and stirring them into her bowl. 

“Thanks for the sugar. I usually start my day with some sort of sugar. But I drink my coffee black. Is that weird? Maybe. I didn’t know if you drink coffee. I didn’t look for any, sorry. Plus, I used all the water for the oats. I guess they are a tad watery, sorry about that too. I’m not used to eye-balling the measurements. But if you have coffee and want some, I can certainly boil more water. Unless you have tea? I never could get into tea, unless I’m sick, then I like a strong lemon tea with honey because it soothes the throat. I still hate the taste though. Actually, I had a green-tea flavored Canada Dry when I flew into British Columbia a couple years ago. That stuff actually tasted great. And it was so refreshing. But maybe that’s because it was cold pop and not a hot cup of-”

He let out a long, slow breath. Anna realized she was talking too much. He hadn’t said barely a word since they woke up and here she was, chatting away like there was no tomorrow. She wondered suddenly how _anyone_ could live like this. Isolated and alone. Having no one to talk to. So far from civilization that he had to get his supplies flown in two or three times a year.

She thought about the first time she had ever met him a year and a half ago when his regular pilot had retired and she had taken over all his customers. The memory of his shocked face when she stepped from her plane was crystal clear. His expression wondered who in the hell she was and what the hell she was doing there instead of Frank. Anna had explained it while he remained stoic. When she was done talking, he shrugged his broad shoulders like he didn’t care and unloaded all his goods without a word.

When her plane was empty, he loaded it with all the furs he was going to sell, asking her if she knew what to do with them. She nodded and he handed her a list for the Spring supplies and mumbled something about hoping he could trust her like he had trusted Frank, then turned his back on her to start huffing things into his cabin.

Anna left, shaking her head, knowing she would never understand the lifestyle these mountain men chose.

She did as Frank had instructed her to, flying over to White Mountain to find someone named Cliff. He wasn’t that hard to track down. The first person in the tiny airport she asked knew who she was looking for and why she was there. A call was placed on her behalf and she was told Cliff and Belinda were on their way.

Not five minutes later an older couple walked into the tiny airport terminal and went straight over to Anna.

“You must be Anna!” Belinda said, pulling her into a hug.

“Frank told us all about you,” Cliff said, following his wife’s actions.

“You must be Cliff and Belinda,” Anna said with a smile at their warm greeting.

“Oh, just call me Linda dear, every one does.”

Anna nodded. “My plane is over here,” she said. Linda followed her onto the tarmac and Cliff hopped in the seat of his pickup and drove over to the plane.

“What did our boy haul in this time?” Linda mused as Anna opened the door and lifted herself up into the plane to pass out the firs. 

She grabbed a stack and set them on the seat for Cliff to grab. “Kristoff is your son?”

“Not by blood, no. But we raised him when his parents tragically passed away in a house fire.”

“Oh, that’s terrible,” Anna frowned as she piled furs on the seat for the old couple to grab.

“It was tragic. Poor boy didn’t talk to anyone for almost a year. He was just so young too! Then one day he kind of snapped out of it and began to act like a kid again,” Linda explained.

“But he was never the same.” Cliff added.

Linda nodded solemnly. “No, he wasn’t. He was happy enough, but he was quiet. Eerie quiet most times. He bottled up his feeling no matter how many times we tired to talk to him about them.”

“Only thing that seemed to keep him going some days was that silly notion of his to make his own way up on the boonies. That was the one thing we could get him to talk on and on about,” Cliff added.

“What about friends?” Anna asked, not really wanting to pry too much but letting her curiosity get the better of her.

“Oh, he was a bit of a loner for the most part. The other kids thought he was weird. I’m sure that didn’t help matters for someone who was missing his parents the way he was,” Linda said, taking the new stack of firs and placing it in the back of the truck. “At least he always seemed to be content being himself at home. He read stacks and stacks of books about wilderness survival and how homesteads were built back in the olden days.”

“And he certainly makes a living for himself now. Completely self reliant and completely off the grid,” Cliff said with pride. “He took his vision and made it a reality. I respect anyone who is willing to work hard and sacrifice to do that.”

“I agree,” Anna said truthfully, even though she did not understand his vision at all. She stepped out of the plane with the last of the firs and placed them on the stack in the back of their truck. 

Cliff secured the firs while Linda walked to the cab and grabbed an apple box.

“Here,” she said, holding it out to Anna. “This is for Kristoff next time you’re due to go back up.”

“Oh, sure. I’ll make sure he get’s it,” Anna said and turned to put it in her plane. She knew it wasn’t apples by the way the items shifted inside. Probably some sort of care package.

“Well thank you, dear!” Linda said, pulling her into another hug. 

“Give out boy our best when you see him next,” Cliff hugged her after.

“I will,” She said, then hopped back into her plane when Cliff and Linda drove away.

When Anna had returned to Nome, she asked Frank about Kristoff and how long he had been up there living alone like that.

“Oh, ‘bout a decade now.”

“So, you took him supplies from the very start?”

“Well that first year, this was before he was living up there full time mind you, he had me fly him up there with his things and then take him back. Every paycheck he would go out and buy something he needed to build a cabin and sustain life that far away, and every paycheck he would hire me to fly him up there to drop it off. He even asked me to stay a few hours one time so that I could help him fasten up a lean-to that he could stay in it while he built his cabin.”

“He was pretty set on it, wasn’t he?”

“Yup. Never seen a man with so much determination. The first year he was up there all alone, he paid me to fly up every month, wanting to make sure that he was able to sustain himself and get any supplies he needed that he didn’t anticipate, which ended up being quite a few. He lost a lot of weight those first few months. Nearly twenty pounds I recon. I knew he was having a tough go at it all. I even popped in a few times before the next month was due if I was flying not too far, just to make sure that he was still alive.”

Anna shook her head in disbelief.

“He was dead-set on seeing it through. By the end of that first year he had built himself his home, a shed, he dug a cellar, made an outhouse, set up a trap line, learned to trap, dug a well, the works. I was happy to see him succeed.

“I was there when he took off on that seven-hundred-mile journey on his old snowmobile to officially start his life at his homestead. As he waved at me when he set out, I honestly wondered if he would make it. I half expected that the first time I took up supplies after the winter was over that he would beg me to take him back, but he greeted me with a smile and showed me all he had accomplished. I tell ya, it sure made me happy to see him doing well.”

“He seems a little rough around the edges.”

“Oh, that’s just him. He doesn’t like people very much. Never has according to Cliff and Linda. Got the idea to live like a true mountain man from his grandfather when he was just a babe. Got stuck in his brain, I guess. Apparently, it’s all he ever talked about. Cliff and Linda worried over him of course. They hoped that he would outgrow the idea, but he never did.”

“Well he certainly seems to know what he’s doing,” Anna muttered.

Frank regarded her closely for a moment. “Look, Anna. I know he might have come across as rude, or hell, maybe he even seemed mean. But trust me, that man has a soft centre.”

Anna nodded even though she didn’t really believe him. After a decade of living in complete isolation, how could anyone have a soft centre.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collab with Lukin08

After she cleaned up the breakfast dishes, Anna found Kristoff outside chopping wood. He had a propane lantern on his small porch that lit up the snowy clearing where his cabin was. He was just at the edge of the darkness, splitting each log with one powerful swing as fat snowflakes fell silently in the air. 

He wedged the axe in the huge stump he used to chop the logs on and then loaded his arms with split wood and walked around to the side of the house where Anna assumed a wood shelter was built. She wandered over to the stump, checking behind her to see if Kristoff was still gone and removed the axe with a sharp tug. There was no need for the axe to sit idle as long as she was here to help. They could make quick work of this even if he didn’t ask for her help, Anna reasoned to herself while she set up a log to split. Taking a deep breath to keep steady, Anna lined the axe up with the log and raised her arms. As soon as she swung it he was there beside her. 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The axe went about halfway down the log and she cursed him silently for disrupting her swing. 

“Chopping wood, what the hell does it look like?” she shot back, lifting the log with the axe and brining it down again to split it the rest of the way. The two halves fell to the ground and she stared daggers at him. 

“I don’t need your help,” he grumbled at her, picking up another arm load of the logs he had split.

Anna ignored him, picking up another log and set it on the stump. Her next strike split the log clear through on her first attempt. She couldn’t help the satisfied smile that spread across her face. Kristoff let out a loud sigh then went to grab another arm full of logs. There was no doubt it was to make sure she knew exactly how he felt about it. Anna continued to chop wood anyway, not daring to look his way. She could feel his eyes on her every time he came back, probably sizing her up, trying to calculate in his mind if she would have lasted more than a few hours out here on her own. Her progress was a little slower than she wanted and nowhere near Kristoff’s efficient strikes, but she managed to split each log every time with only one strike. When the wood pile Kristoff had cut was moved to the shed, he had stood silently in front of her with his hand out for the axe and waited. 

She relented without a fight. It was his after all, but she stayed to gather up all the wood he split and took armfuls of her own around the side of his cabin to the wood shed. He continued to shoot her looks every time she came back, but she didn’t really care. It beat sitting in the cabin and waiting, not knowing that to do and not really wanting to touch anything, especially after what happened with the chocolates. He seemed like he was the type of man who liked things a certain way and she did not want to disrupt that. Her stacking wood in his shed was probably going out on a limb enough, but she knew what she was doing. She did it at home for herself all the time. They _did_ live in Alaska.

Even if Kristoff would never admit it, the combination of her stacking the wood in the shed while he chopped the logs worked well. In no time, Anna was looking at a fully stocked shelter of fresh firewood and a little proud of herself at how neatly she had gotten the stack set. Rounding the corner from the cabin, Anna was about to tell Kristoff the shelter was full when she watched him whack the axe back in the stump before he trudged off to a shed without a word.

The modest building was nestled in the tree-line of the small clearing. She hung back, watching with curiosity as he went inside and opened both doors to reveal an old snowmobile. He set the choke and pulled the starter cord a couple times before it roared to life. He waited until the idle slowed before he reached down and took the choke off and lifted one of his long legs over the machine. He pulled it out into the snow then disappeared back in the shed for a moment before coming out with a hunting rifle that he strapped along the handlebars and a sled that he attached to the back.

Anna could see better now that there was finally some light filtering through the heavy cloud cover. Kristoff did a quick inspection walk around the snowmobile threw his leg over the seat again and sat down. The machine revved and she realized that he was leaving.

“Hey!” she shouted. “Wait!”

She didn’t think he was going to stop for a second, until she saw his head dip between his shoulders. He let go of the throttle and waited. Anna jogged up to him, following in his tracks. He was giving her an impatient look. 

“Can I come?” she asked.

“No.”

“But-”

“I said no. I don’t need anything that would slow me down.”

Anna frowned at him. “Fine, tell me what I can do around here to help you out then.”

He blinked at her like he was just realizing what exactly he had gotten himself into by making sure she didn’t try and fly around the storm. 

“Why don’t you just grab a book and keep the stove stoked or something?”

Her hands went to her hips. “I’m not going to louse about, especially because you were gracious enough to offer me food and shelter.” _Despite how uncomfortable it is_ , she thought. “But if you won’t let me come help you on your trap line,” His eyes widen slightly, like he was surprised she knew what he was going out to do, “I want to do something around here to help you out.”

He clenched his jaw a moment. “You don’t even have proper gear to be out in this weather.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Oh please. I have my shit in the plane. You think I’m that stupid? I fly across the mountains of Alaska for a living. Of course I have cold weather gear!”

He set his jaw before he spoke. “Fine. Grab your shit, but hurry up.”

She didn’t hesitate, knowing that taking her time would irk him further. She trudged over to her plane and crawled inside to get to the trunk she kept tucked in her small space at the very back. She pulled out her thermal snowsuit and heavy down jacket, as well as her Sorrels and thick wool socks. Last but not least, her Ushanka and her fur-lined, leather mittens. She pulled everything over the clothes in the confines of the fuselage of her small aircraft and emerged to see that Kristoff had not moved an inch. 

He finally looked over as she got closer. If he was impressed by her set-up, he didn’t show it. He simply said “hang-on” as she straddled the machine behind him and grabbed loosely at his sides.

He took off and she nearly lost her lax grip. Anna leaned forward and wrapped her arms a little tighter around him. The last thing she needed was to fall off the machine and have to face his annoyance at having to wait for her to get back on.

She wasn’t sure how long they were on the trail. It seemed like a long time, but time had a funny way of dragging on at the endless, unchanging landscape of trees and snow. She preferred the view from her plane. There was a beauty in seeing the expanse of the land that you just couldn’t get down on the ground. Kristoff finally slowed, coming up on one of his martin traps. He was pulling away from her and off the machine before they even came to a full stop.

He bent over, looking at something before he straightened and cursed, turning back and heading quickly for the machine. Anna barely had time to settle her hands around his waist again before he was speeding off to the next one. 

Trap after trap, he was coming up empty and he was getting more and more frustrated and standoffish. Anna had followed him to one of them to see what was going on. When he spun around to find her right behind him, he just about snarled at her. He walked around her, leaving her standing there shaking her head. 

“Come on,” he barked, revving the engine of the snowmobile to emphasise his impatience. 

Anna ignored him and walked over to the trap. She noticed that he had what looked like some grouse for bait. She jogged back as he was slowly creeping forward on the machine to imply that he was going to leave her there if she didn’t hustle. 

“Have you tried beaver?” she shouted over the engine.

He turned his head slightly to the side. “Are you kidding? Of course I’d use beaver, if I could fucking catch any.”

Anna had to frown. Her father had made some good money by trapping beavers for their pelts and she had learned a lot by going out with him. She reminded herself to ask him where he was trying his traps when they got back to his cabin.

They continued on until she surmised that he was making a loop back to his cabin by the position of the sun; which would be setting in a few short hours. _One of the joys about living so far north,_ she thought sarcastically. In the summertime it was almost magical how it never got fully dark. In the winter however, the endless night sky became daunting at times.

The next stop Kristoff finally had a martin in the trap. His celebration was simply pulling it out of the trap, then throwing it in the sled behind the snowmobile without a word. Anna helped by fetching fresh bait before he had to ask, as he worked on re-setting the trap. She was happy for him that he would not come up empty handed at least. She refrained from being overly vocal about it however, knowing it would probably annoy him. 

They kept curving back around the big loop and checking traps when the sled suddenly took a violent dip to the left, almost spilling them both into the snow.

Kristoff killed the engine as Anna let go of his waist. He paused a moment and didn’t move, as if he was suddenly overwhelmed. Then she heard him say ‘ _fuck’_ under his breath and he got up and rounded the front of the machine. He lifted the hood off the engine and looked down at the suspension for the left front ski. Anna scooted up to the front of the seat and peered over. She could see that one of the steering rods had snapped and the ski would not be able to maneuver without it.

The burly man grumbled again then went to the small box and the front of the sled and stated to rummage thought it, cursing more and more as things were pulled out. Anna came to understand that he did not have the right materials to do the repair. She had an idea, however. As a child, she had watched her father fix something similar once by wrapping it repeatedly with leather cord. 

“Do you have a knife?” she asked.

“What?” He looked up, exasperated.

“A knife? Do you have one?”

“Ugh.” 

She ignored the distain on his voice as he reached up under his coat, presumably into the pockets of his Carhartt’s, then tossed a pocket knife at her. Anna caught it, rolling her eyes at the fact that it clearly didn’t even cross his mind to offer her the big hunting knife strapped to his waist. She wasted no time in stripping her gloves off and tearing the fur lining out of them before cutting the leather into strips and braiding it together while Kristoff kept rummaging through his supplies, trying to piece things together. 

He was looking at everything in the snow and muttering to himself of what he could do to repair the rod while Anna continued to make braids from her gloves and tie them together with secure knots. When she was done making the rope, she looped one end around the joint for the ski and another around where the broken rod bracket was.

“Come here,” she called out to him sharply. The makeshift rope was just long enough and she didn’t want to move the grip she had to turn around to look at him. She listened to silence for a second before she heard snow start to crunch and he was standing over her. 

“Help me straighten the ski and then we can tie it,” she said.

She waited in the eerie silence of heavy snowfall in the middle of fucking nowhere. Finally, he shifted and did what he was asked, placing the ski in the same position as the right one before he stripped his gloves off to help her. He grabbed the makeshift rope from her grasp and pulled it taught to tie a knot with Anna securing the cord with the short loose ends he had to work with to help him tie it off. When he was done, he paused, looking down at the innovation as it was sprinkled with snowflakes.

When he tuned his eyes to hers, she was surprised by what she saw. It was the first time she could see past the barrier her had set up. His eyes were genuine and he nodded his appreciation.

And that was it. He closed the lid of the machine and started it back up. Anna watched as he packed up his things, then slid himself on the seat and pulled the throttle lightly to get it lined up back on the path. Once he was set up for them to continue, he got off and walked up to where she was standing and pulled off his gloves without any hesitation.

“Here, take these,” he said, holding the out for her.

She looked down at them before meeting his eyes again. “No way. You need those if you’re driving.”

“Anna-”

“No, your hands will be exposed and they’ll freeze. We need to get back. I’ll just stuff my hands into your pockets if I have to.”

His eyes searched hers. What he saw there she would never know. He nodded and straddled the machine, pulling his gloves back on. Anna followed and he guided her hands to the front pouch pockets of his jacket, even though he was so broad that she could barely even get her fingers in.

Kristoff started off and time ceased to exist. Anna held onto him as tight as she could, trying to stuff her hands further into his pockets as the cold wind took over, freezing all her exposed skin. 

Suddenly he slowed to a stop and he pulled off his mitts. Anna was about to protest when he said “give me your hands.” 

She put them forward under his arms wondering what he had in mind. He shifted in the seat, reaching under his coat. It took a moment for Anna to realize that he was tugging his sweater out of his Carhartt overalls. The next thing she knew he was grabbing her hands and pulling them upwards.

He pulled in a quick breath when her cold hands made contact with his skin as he settled them under his arms with her fingers curling around to the side of his pecs. He pressed them firmly, indicating that he didn’t want her to move them before he clumsily pulled the layers back down. The edge of the coat stopped when it met Anna’s folded elbows, leaving his lower back exposed. She tried to compensate by shifting her hips forward until she was completely wrapped around him.

When he seemed satisfied that she was settled, he started off again. Anna realized that she could feel his heartbeat under his ribs. It was steady and fast. Likely he was nervous about making it back to the cabin before nightfall. Surely there would be no other reason for his heart to beat like that.

She watched as they passed trap after trap, not bothering to check them as the light was swiftly fading. They had lost precious time fixing the ski and getting back to the cabin before dark could be the difference between life and death. She wondered how hard it would be, had they not been able to fix the ski, to spend the night out in the open. How many times he had done it, trying to stay warm to keep himself alive. What was it like to fall asleep in the hopes that you will survive the night and see the light or morning?

The cabin finally came into view. Kristoff pulled right up into the shed and killed the engine. 

“Can you go in and stoke the fire?” he asked shifting uncomfortably until Anna understood and pulled her palms from his skin. 

“Sure,” she muttered as she got off the machine and walked slowly toward the cabin. She did as she was asked and stoked the fire, sitting in front of it while it roared to life and getting the last of the chill off the rest of her body. Her hands, having spent so long on Kristoff’s skin, were the only warm part of her.

When she was finally warm, she grabbed the kettle on top and went outside to fill it from the well. She spotted Kristoff as he emerged from the shed and entered a small addition that was built on the on the side. He had the martin pelt in his hands and he proceeded to hang it on a line. Anna realized that it was where he put all his skins before he processed them. He didn’t look over at her as he went about his business.

Back in his cabin, Anna lit the lantern before she set the kettle on the stove to heat. Then she took a look around his kitchen. She wished she knew what he wanted to eat so that she could start dinner for him. He had rice and some other dried grains, but she didn’t want to go ahead and start to make something if he was running short or had something else in mind. Plus, she had no idea where he kept the meat.

Wandering into his bedroom with the lantern, Anna took a good look around for the first time since she had been there. The trunk that held his clothes in the corner had a matching partner sitting at the foot of the bed. She lifted the lid to see extra blankets and a beautiful fir. She had a mind to go digging, to see if there was anything at the bottom, then thought better of it.

He had nothing else in the small room that would give her any other insight into what kind of a man he was other than what she already knew. A hermit didn’t worry about possessions after all. Still, she had to wonder why there wasn’t a single picture.

With a sigh, she wandered back into the main part of the cabin and shrugged back into her coat before putting on her boots. She went out to the little porch and looked around. Kristoff was in the shed now, probably with the snowmobile. She could see the faint light from a lantern and she could hear him moving around in there with the sound of tools. She looked around spotted a broom resting against the house at the edge for the railing. She picked it up and began to brush all the snow that had accumulated on the edge of the porch where the overhang didn’t quite keep it covered.

She looked over to the shed again, the dim light mostly obscured by the falling snow. It was getting darker by the second and she wondered when he was going to come back inside. As if he heard her thoughts, the light went out and he emerged from the shed, shutting it and trudging back to where she was standing. 

He walked straight past her to his door, muttering, “Come in now, it’s getting colder.”

Anna followed him with a sigh, wondering how she was going to endure another night of awkward conversation and having to share his bed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collab with Lunkin08

There was no talking between them as Kristoff sat on the stump at the table and pulled off his boots. Anna sighed as she shucked off her thick layers, happy to be free from them for the night.

He hung all his wet clothes on a hook behind the stove then walked straight over to Anna as she was piling her clothes into her arms. He took them from her and hung them with his without a word.

Anna sat down as he walked into his room, cursed, then came back out to grab the lantern from the table before going back. She heard shuffling for a moment, then he emerged in what she understood now was his pajamas; a flannel pair of pants and a long sleeve t-shirt with a logo too faded to recognize. 

He took a seat across from her at the table. “Are your hands okay?” he asked.

Anna studied him for a moment, realising there was compassion in his eyes.

“Yes, thank you.”

He kept his gaze focused on her. Anna wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but for a split second she could see softness in him. It was gone in a flash as he turned sideways on the stump and leaned back against the wall. “No, I think it’s more like thank _you_. You pretty much saved our skins with your… fix.”

He ended it awkwardly and Anna understood he was not used to someone else offering something other than what he knew.

“At least we didn’t have to sleep in the woods or something,” she said, offering him a smile.

His face dimmed, as he stared out into the room. “It’s hard,” he said, “sleeping out in the open like that. I’ve had my share. It’s not very fun.”

He looked sad all of the sudden and Anna had that crushing sense of lonliness press on her again to realize what kind of life he led.

“So, what do you do when you relax?” she asked softly.

“Well,” he let out a breath and looked around his small cabin, “I read. I cook. Most of the time I work on everything so late that the only energy I have left is to crawl into bed.”

“What about when you get too snowed in and the books have all been read, and you’ve already cooked?”

“Well, I have cards. I am pretty good solitaire player.”

Anna’s eyes went wide at the prospect of having something to do. “Want to play a card game?”

He regarded her closely for a moment before he spoke. “I _do_ have a crib board.”

“No way?” Anna could not container excitement. She had not played crib in an eternity. 

He got up without a word and opened a cabinet in his little kitchen, rummaging a little before he came up with the prize and brought it back to the table. 

“Wait. Can I ask, why you have a crib board if you are up here all alone?”

“I brought it with me, actually. I thought I could play myself. Kind of like solitaire. But it wasn’t very fun. Actually, it sucked,” he said as he removed the cards from the box and started to shuffle them. Anna had never seen someone shuffle so well. His hands were incredibly nimble for how big they were.

Kristoff won the cut and they started to play. Anna was surprised how good he was at it. She was going to take it easy on him thinking that he was a bit rusty, but he was kicking her ass. She decided that she was somehow going to beat him. 

Kristoff smiled as he pegged into the winner’s slot. Anna realized it was the first time she had ever seen him do so. It was a little muted by his heavy moustache and long beard, but lovely nonetheless.

His expression quickly shifted uncomfortably and Anna realized that she was staring again. 

He ran a hand through his shoulder length hair. “So, what are you in the mood for… for dinner?”

“Oh, whatever you were planning on making. I don’t need very much.” As soon as she said it her stomach growled very audibly. Anna looked away from his eyes, embarrassed.

“I’m hungry too,” he said, then got up and walked over to his small kitchen as if he didn’t pick up on her self-conciousness in the slightest. 

He pulled down a large pot and walked outside to fill it with water. Once he was back inside, he placed it on the stove to boil and grabbed down a jar of dried macaroni. Then he moved the rug that sat in the middle of the cabin to reveal a trap door. Anna felt silly that she didn’t even realize it was there. Of course he would have built a cellar for food storage. 

As soon as he lifted the door Anna was hit with a blast of cool air. That was why he had the rug over the door, to keep out the draft. He disappeared into the floor and came back quickly with a brown-paper wrapped package and a can of diced tomatoes. Anna closed the door and put the rug back in place for him as he set the items on the counter.

He grabbed a skillet from one of his cabinets and placed it beside the water on the stove, dumping the contents of the paper inside. Anna realized it was a package of finely diced meat. When he added the can of tomatoes, she realized he was making a meat sauce for the pasta. 

The thought of this meal compared to the bland dryness the one the night before made Anna’s mouth water. The saltiness from the canned tomatoes would add some much needed flavour.

Kristoff took a seat on the log at his table after the two pots were on the stove. Anna understood that cooking in that method took its time compared to having a direct flame. Especially since she could see that the meat was partially frozen. She had wanted to help him cook but the only thing they could really do now was wait.

“Want to play a game while it’s cooking?” Anna asked. “I still need to beat you.”

He chuckled softly, “Sure.” He grabbed the crib board to reset the pegs as Anna shuffled the cards. 

They played while they both took turns getting up and stirring the pots on the stove. By the time the game was finished and Kristoff had skunked her again, the food was done. Kristoff placed the pots on the kitchen counter then grabbed a jar of yellow flakes off the shelf and sprinkled them in the sauce and stirred.

“What’s that?” Anna asked, setting up and going over to where he was standing in the kitchen.

“It’s called nooch.”

“Nooch?”

“Well, nutritional yeast, actually. Nooch is just a nickname. It’s the closest thing I can get to making things taste cheesy,” he chuckled.

“Really? It doesn’t look very cheesy,” Anna wrinkled her nose up a little at the thought of the weird flakes.

“Here, try,” he lifted the spoon with some of the sauce and offered it to Anna. 

She leaned forward, blowing a little on the steaming sauce before tasting it. Damn if he wasn’t right. There was a delicious cheesy hint to the wonderful sauce. She let out an unexpected and delighted moan. 

“Oh my God, that’s so good.”

Kristoff’s cheeks turned red as he cleared his throat and got a set of plates and utensils. He dished them both in a hearty portion of pasta and spit the sauce between the two of them. Anna found it curious that he was giving her as much as he was dishing in for himself. Goodness knew with his size that he needed the sustenance more than her.

“Thanks,” Anna said when he offered her the plate. She sat at the table and started to eat with gusto. It was a phenomenal meal, considering. One she couldn’t fathom after last nights dinner, assuming that all the meals would be chewy gamy meat and horrible bitter grains that screamed for salt during her time stuck with Kristoff in his cabin. 

He ate in the same way as the night before and finished before her, despite how fast she was eating. Anna looked down at her remaining food.

“Ugh, I’m so full I can’t eat another bite,” she said, pushing back in the chair and patting her stomach. It was a tiny fib. She was getting full, but she was certainly capable of eating the rest of his delicious cooking. “You want to finish this Kristoff?”

He eyed her for a moment making her aware that he knew exactly what she was doing, then reached over for her plate anyway.

“You sure you’re done?” He raised his eyebrows.

Anna nodded, giving him a big smile.

“Alright, as long as you don’t want it.”

“Have at it,” Anna laughed and tried not to stare at him while he finished the food. 

When he was done Anna got up to clear the dishes. Kristoff beat her to it, having both plates in front of him. 

“Set up the board,” he said, nodding over to the table. “I’ll give you another shot to redeem yourself.”

“Oh, you are on!” Anna grinned.

*****

Anna was about to ask if Kristoff wanted another game when he yawned. It caught and Anna did the same, suddenly realizing how tired she was herself. She stood, throwing her arms up then slowly out in a satisfying stretch. There was something to be said about the fulling ache from a hard days work. 

Kristoff shook his head at her and went to put the game away. Then he stoked the fire while Anna went to his room and crawled into his bed, settling herself on her side as far to the edge as possible. After a moment Kristoff joined her, leaving a space between them, and Anna realized that it was warmer in the cabin than the night before. Had he been keeping the fire hotter for her? Probably. Most likely not wanting to have to deal with her by using his body heat to keep her warm during the night.

“Thanks for what you did today,” he said, startling her a little.

“Don’t mention it.”

“I mean it. That fix on the sled. That was…. Impressive. It never would have crossed my mind to do it like that.”

“Well, thanks.”

He was quiet for a moment and Anna thought he was settling into sleep. He surprised her again when he spoke once more. 

“Have you lived in Alaska all your life?”

“Yeah,” she answered, rolling over to face him. She couldn’t really make out his features in the dark. She could only see his outline from the dim light coming from the fire in the stove. “My parents raised my sister and me up in Nome with their plane business. We both learned to fly at a young age.”

“Your father is an outdoorsman?”

Anna chuckled. “How did you guess?”

“Well, you sure came up with that broken rod solution pretty quick. And mentioning using beaver for the martin traps, I just kind of figured that you had learned that somewhere?”

“Yeah, my father sold beaver pelts as a side business. He enjoyed the outdoors, definitely. I swear the only time he was ever in the house when we were kids, was to eat and sleep.” Anna smiled to herself at the memory. “He was always smiling when he was outside.”

“How long ago did he pass away?”

Anna pulled in a breath, surprised that he had picked up on her use of past-tense. “About fourteen years ago. I lost him and my Mom. Their plane went down in the mountains in bad weather.”

“And you were going to try and fly around that storm yesterday?”

Anna frowned in the dark. “Yeah, I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

She ignored him. “Flying has never sacred me. Ever. It never scared my Dad either. I suppose that’s why I kept doing it, ever after the accident and my sister flaked on me.”

He was quiet. Anna was sure he had had just about enough of her pathetic life story. But when he spoke again, his voice in the darkened glow of the room was as soft as she had ever heard.

“Your sister couldn’t handle being around them anymore? Planes?”

“You guessed it,” she sighed. “Elsa never set foot in the hanger after the day they died. She became quite neurotic and spiralled into a bout of heavy depression… you know, never leaving the house, sleeping too much, not eating, that sort of thing. I got quite worried about her. It was almost impossible to be there for her and try and run our parent’s business on my own. That was until Frank stepped into my life in the need of hanger space and a business partner when he moved to Nome.”

“He did?”

“Uh huh. He saved my bacon, he really did. I was on a fast track to a mental breakdown. He helped me get the business back on track so I could help my sister. She got better quickly, thank goodness, and Arendelle Air finally started to thrive. Still is, in fact. Elsa even started to take on some of the responsibly like the bookwork and stuff like that, even though she does it is all from home. Can’t get her anywhere near a plane.”

“Sounds like everything is working out,” he said quietly.

“It was, until Frank had a heart attack and they revoked his pilot licence. He basically retired but he sticks around to help me handle all the ground work. I had to take on all the rest, like flying supplies out to people like you.”

Kristoff was deathly quiet for a moment. “I… I never knew that… Frank had a heart attack.”

“You never asked,” Anna said, not meaning for it to sound as pointed as it did.

He didn’t respond for a long time. Anna shifted and rolled back away from him assuming that he was finished talking. 

“I’m sorry,” he offered, breaking his silence. 

“About what?” Anna asked, still facing away. “Had nothing to do with you.”

“I should have asked.”

“Wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“But still-”

“Listen, Kristoff… I’m not upset or anything. It’s just what happened. Goodness knows you have more shit to worry about than a new pilot… like waking up and trying to make it through the day without dying.”

“I know it’s hard to understand this lifestyle-”

“It’s not hard for me to understand. For me it’s _impossible_ to understand.”

He resumed his silence and they lay there in the dark for a long time, thinking to themselves before Kristoff pulled in a yawn and Anna realised that he was keeping himself awake, not wanting to leave the conversation hanging in the air they way it did before they fell asleep. Truthfully, neither did she. Things between them were tense enough already, they might as well try and be civil towards each other since they were sleeping in the same bed.

“We better try and get some sleep so we are rested for the tasks tomorrow,” she murmured.

“Yes.”

“Goodnight Kristoff.”

“Goodnight Anna.”

She felt him settle himself into a position and he was quiet a moment before he whispered. “Let me know if you get cold.”

“Okay, thank you,” Anna whispered back.

She was dead tired, but she couldn’t fall asleep. Kristoff had started to breathe long and slow behind her and she tried to focus on the rhythm of that. Instead, her mind started to wander and she didn’t like where it was leading her. She especially didn’t like that she was imagining having his warm body wrapped against hers right now.

She let out a frustrated sigh, tugging the blankets up tighter to her chin. Alone all this time! And for what? Anna couldn’t wrap her head around it. He didn’t really seem to fit the mold of some of the more hardened mountain men she did runs for. She stared at the dark wall, wondering again how Kristoff could choose to live a life with no one. Not that it mattered what she thought. As soon as the weather cleared, she’d be out of here and she wouldn’t have to even think about Kristoff again until spring for the next supply hauls. 

He let out a snore before he suddenly moved, rolling over and right up against Anna’s back. His arm fell loosely around her and he settled back into his deep sleep immediately. Anna was still for a moment before finally letting her body relax. She sighed quietly, gently snuggling herself closer to him and letting her eyes slide shut, realizing that being held by him was exactly what she needed, and she gave into the sleep that pressed on her immediately. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Collab with Lukin08

Kristoff woke slowly, wrapped around something incredibly warm. He blinked in the dark, suddenly remembering everything and who was in his arms. He went to move but his muscles refused to cooperate. Despite how tense and awkward he felt last night when he dozed off sleeping next to her, right now he was comfortable. _Very_ comfortable. Anna was breathing deep with sleep, the movements very evident under the arm that was curled around her. It was then he realized his hand was tucked just below her breast and that he could feel the curve of it through her sweater resting ever so gently against his thumb.

He definitely needed to move, was about to, when he felt the dip in the middle of the mattress where his body usually laid alone. He was the one who had invaded her side of the bed. It was him who had sought her out in his sleep by rolling over and putting himself around her.

That idea scared the hell out of him. 

He made the decision to move again, only to have his muscles hesitate once more. He had no idea what time it was. Perhaps it was the middle of the night. He didn’t want to disturb her. She had spent all day helping him and she was probably still tired. Anna had proved to be a great help, he could stand to let her sleep a little longer. This way if she was cold, she wouldn’t have to wake him up to ask him to hold her.

He yawned and relaxed his tense muscles, knowing he wouldn’t get any more sleep for having to remain still so as not to wake her. He dared to inch his face a little closer to her hair, breathing in the scent of it. He could faintly smell her shampoo; soapy, clean and not overly floral. 

_My God, she is warm._

Kristoff started to think about all the tasks he had to face in the morning when suddenly he was in a flowered meadow, Anna running there beside him in a yellow sundress, her hand pulling his in some unknown direction which he eagerly followed. He startled back to consciousness, incredulous that he had actually dozed off. That was the absolute last thing he thought he would be able to do.

He just about moved away from her then. _Just about_. Then he relented quickly and reminded himself he needed rest to get through the day ahead. With that, he fell back asleep once more.

*****

They both stood on the porch looking up into falling snow. It had accumulated so much overnight that everything was covered in a foot and a half of fluffy white flakes. All the new fallen undisturbed white powder was a breathtaking sight.

“This is one big system,” Anna grumbled, wrapping her arms around herself.

Kristoff looked at her grim expression, wondering what he could do to make her feel less like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world. He fumbled with the words in his mind, trying to think of the right way to talk to her when she grew impatient with his silence and spoke instead.

“So, are you checking your lines again at some point? We’ll need to fix that rod. I’m actually surprised that rope got us all the way back here.” She frowned when he couldn’t respond. “Or do you have other stuff going on?”

He blinked himself out of his stupor. “Uh… yeah, I should fix that rod.” Her eyes narrowed. “I mean _we_ , if you don’t mind helping?”

Her face relaxed and she smiled. “Not at all.”

“Right.” He nodded and trudged towards the small shed, glad that she seemed a little happier now than when the had walked outside to see all the snow. If she needed a task to take the scowl off her face, he would give her plenty of them today.

Anna removed the cover off the sled and waited while Kristoff grabbed some tools they would need. From the corner of his eyes he watched her fidget as he went through a bin of scrap metal looking for something that would work to do the fix. He knew she was itching to talk. She liked to talk. It was hard for him to understand that.

He dumped everything in a pile as Anna leaned over the rod assembly with him. She didn’t make a peep as he pulled the hunting knife from his belt and cut the leather cord she had made with her gloves. 

After he sheathed the knife, he handed her a crescent wrench and asked her to remove the ski. She did as she was asked while Kristoff went over to his work bench and grabbed a hook from beat up coffee can and hung it in a free space on the peg board on the wall above the cabinets. He took the leather cord and wrapped it around the hook, wanting to keep it in case there was ever a need for something like that. So many things could happen unexpectedly, he never threw anything away. 

Anna already had the pieces apart when Kristoff crouched back beside her, looking bored out of her mind. He needed to say something. She looked like she was ready to explode from the silence, but it was clear she was trying so hard to respect his space and wait for him to speak first.

“So… you have any kids?” he asked. He didn’t think she did, but he wanted to try and make conversation so that she wouldn’t look so dejected. It was the first thing that popped into his head and he hope she didn’t see him wince at the realization of what he asked.

Anna laughed. “No.”

“Someday though? Are you a kid person, or a non-kid person?”

“Oh, I am definitely a kid person. I love kids. I _really_ hope I can have some of my own someday. But that clock is certainly ticking and quite honestly I’ve been too busy to even try and find myself a man.”

“You mean they’re not lined up at your doorstep?”

Anna snorted a laugh until she saw his strained smile and seemed to realize that he had been serious. Kristoff knew he should try and play it off as a joke, but he had genuinely thought that she would be sought after. She was gorgeous and smart and tough. Annoying to him, sure, but she seemed like the perfect catch for what he remembered most guys looked for in a woman. How the hell could she not have men all over her?

They both fell silent and Kristoff busied himself as he began to remove the entire steering assembly. He was at a loss on how to keep the conversation going.

“What about you?” Anna asked after a moment. “You never wanted kids?”

Kristoff’s hands froze as he was removing a bolt. He had not expected her to ask him that. 

“Sorry,” she murmured at his silence. “None of my business. Let’s forget I said anything.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” he said, brining his eyes up to hers. “I just… I never thought about anything besides this life. I never took the time to consider anything else. It was just… this.”

Anna’s eyes became sad. “You never wanted companionship? Never wanted to have a family?”

Kristoff’s heart started to hammer in his chest. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid. This was why he hated talking. No one understood him. It was only three years ago that Frank had to fly him back to White Mountain when he had fallen deathly ill from an infection from the tiniest scratch of a rusted nail. It only took one look at his appearance for people to shake their heads. The nurse who attended him had looked at him like he was an idiot. The doctor berated him being so far from civilization without a means to call for help. He had never been so glad to be back at his cabin when he was healed and well. It was absolute hell having to lay in that hospital bed while everyone who came into the room all but sneered at him.

Kristoff shook his head. It was all he could give her. He didn’t trust himself to speak in that moment.

Her eyebrows twitched upwards quickly as if she was saying ‘okay then, whatever’ before she moved her eyes back to the snowmobile.

Kristoff resumed removing the assembly wondering how things had gotten off track so quickly. It was his fault, he realized. He was the one who asked her about kids first. He had completely forgotten how people have proper conversations. Of course she would ask him something in return.

The assembly finally came off and Kristoff looked over the broken part. He was going to have to weld the damn thing.

“I only have one welding shield.”

She looked at him a moment before understanding crossed her face. “Okay. I’ll just go chop some wood or something.”

“You don’t have to-” he started, but she was already heading out the door.

He sighed, shoulders slumping, feeling strangely defeated. The truth was he never gave his decisions, or his future for that matter, any thought. He didn’t have time to. He just lived every day that came without worrying about what he would be doing in five years. Or ten years. He certainly never thought about what he would do when he was too old to eke out a living in the middle of nowhere. It honestly never crossed his mind to consider it.

Now it seemed to be all he could think about.

~ ~ ~

Anna chopped and stored two cords of wood before she got tired and retreated back into the cabin. She felt a little bad about pressing Kristoff with her questions. What was it about him that she just needed to know? Whatever it was, it kept nagging at her to try to make sense of it all. But she couldn’t understand how someone like him, with his kindness and obvious gentle nature, could want to spend his entire life alone. It didn’t add up to her. He had so much more to offer the world than simply living all alone in one of the most remote places on earth.

Still, it was not her place to make such judgements. People had been doing the same thing to her all her life and she knew all too well how much that hurt. Kristoff didn’t deserve that. And not from her.

Anna threw a log on the fire and went over to his little bookshelf to see what he had. Most of them were about trapping, skinning and wilderness survival. There was also a book on basic first aid and medical procedures. Then there were a few classics. Anna picked them up one by one looking at them. 

‘The Call of the Wild’… _Fitting_ , Anna thought with smile. ‘War and Peace’, ‘Don Quixote’, ‘Robinson Caruso’… he even had ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. Anna looked at a few more, pulling them all down and leafing through the pages. It wasn’t until she reached the last book that she understood immediately that it was his favorite. The beat-up copy of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ was dog-eared on almost every page, probably from having read it so many times that he always ended up stopping in a different spot. Every other book had only a fraction of bent pages as this book did. While Anna had never read the book, she had seen the movie. She wondered what about the story made it his favorite.

She tucked the book back into its place and stood to look around the cabin wondering what to do next. There were no dishes to do. She had no idea what, if anything, he ate for lunch. She didn’t want to snoop… well, she did, but she wouldn’t. 

She took a seat at the table and grabbed the pack of cards. She shuffled them and laid them out to play solitaire, trying to understand again how Kristoff could live this way, wondering if he was truly happy.

~ ~ ~

Anna was nowhere in sight when Kristoff was finished with the repair on the sled. He looked around the small clearing, thinking that she might be doing something outside. He had thought after he shut the welder off that she might return to help him install the assembly, but she never came back.

He knew she had chopped some wood for him. He heard each thwack of the axe until he had fired up the generator to run his welder. He went over to his wood shed and looked inside, surprised by how much she had done. It certainly was a big help to not have to do it himself.

He went into the cabin and found her sitting at the table playing solitaire. When she looked up at his entrance, he was happy to see that the sadness he had seen earlier seemed to have left her eyes.

“Got it fixed?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, all put back and everything.”

“That’s good.” She started putting the cards back into a pile and slid them back in the box. “Now what?”

“Well, I have a bunch of pelts to deal with.”

“I could give you a hand with that.”

“It’s… well the way I do it, um, you might think it is disgusting.”

“I’m not squeamish.”

“Not even when it comes to brains?”

Anna’s mouth popped open. “Brains? You have got to be kidding me? What the hell would you be playing with brains for?”

Kristoff’s cheeks flushed with heat. “It’s not… I mean, I boil them to tan the hide. It’s an old method… you know what, never mind, I’ll just do it myself.”

Fuck, he was not used to having to explain this shit. He was turning to head back out the door when she spoke.

“No, no! I’ll help!” she insisted, and added under her breath, “beats sitting around with nothing to fucking do.”

“What?”

“Nothing!” Then softer. “Nothing.”

He eyed her a moment, feeling a twitch of annoyance. All she seemed to be able to do was focus on the cons of his life without bothering to consider the pros. Not that he could blame her, he supposed. She just didn’t understand. Never would. Better to leave it alone and just tolerate this shit until the weather was clear enough that she could leave.

Until then, he could at least be civil. 

~ ~ ~

It had been dark for hours by the time they were finished with the task. Anna was dead on her feet and shuffled into the cabin behind Kristoff, plopping herself into the chair at his table and putting her head in her arms.

Kristoff didn’t speak but Anna could hear him going down into the cellar and then preparing food and wondered idly if he would put more finesse into the meal like he did the night before. She supposed she should help him, but damn was she tired. There was no sign of the fatigue on Kristoff, which she understood from doing this every damn day, but still! 

“You want some coffee or something?”

Anna smiled into her arms. After the day they had and all the work Kristoff had put in, he had still taken a moment to ask her if she wanted what had to surely be considered an indulgence. Every time she thought she had a small piece put in place of trying to understand him, he’d throw another wrench at her and shatter it.

She lifted her head to look at him. “No, I’m okay, but thank you. I think I just need food and sleep.”

He gave her a smile. “You and me both. It was a long day.”

“Insanely long,” Anna chuckled and finally stood to take off her coat and boots. With that accomplished she settled herself on the floor in front of the fire. After taking the chill off her bones she asked him if he needed any help with dinner.

“Nah, I got this handled,” he said and continued to work in the kitchen. 

After a moment his head turned and he looked over his shoulder at her. Anna was embarrassed to be caught starting at him again and was about to apologize hen he opened his mouth.

“If you want, there is a fur in the chest at the foot of my bed. You can grab it to sit on if it would be more comfortable for you.”

Anna smiled at that and told him she was going to take him up on that offer. He returned to making dinner and Anna went into his room and opened the chest. She pulled the white and grey fur out and was about to close the lid when her eyes stumbled on a photo of Frank.

Pinching her lip in her teeth and taking a quick look behind her to make sure Kristoff was still occupied, she set the fur down and fished the picture from out from under the stack of blankets. Frank stood there next to Kristoff in the small clearing where she now found herself, only there was a simple shelter for protection from the elements and nothing else.

The men were standing about where the cabin now resided. There was no well, no shed, nothing. Anna imagined it was the very start of Kristoff’s journey to build a life for himself up here. Turning the frame over in her hands she saw there was writing on the back in Franks neat scrawl. 

_‘Humble Beginnings. Good Luck my friend’,_ it said.

It hit Anna in a weirdly emotional way. To see Kristoff back then, looking so damn young, with a short beard and a big smile, nothing but clear excitement for his endeavor. And Frank, giving the camera a thumbs up.

Who took this photo? Was it set on a timer, or was there someone else up there with them that day? Did his parents ever visit? Had they ever seen their son’s lonely life up here in the middle of nowhere.

Anna looked back into the chest, needing more. Moving the blankets aside, she found a neat stack of 4x6 photo’s in the corner of the chest. Quickly, she began leafing through them to find that Kristoff had taken consistent track of his progress in building his homestead through the photos. Anna watched the small clearing transform into what it was now.

The next photo Anna gazed on was much different. It was of the clearing where she landed her plane, in its summer glory, full of the purple lupine flowers she loved so much. She loved flying in the summer, gliding over the sea of purple in the mountains. Everything was so vibrant that time of year. As much as she loved them, if she was honest with herself, she’d never really taken the time to think about how beautiful they could be with this perspective. The photo was so serene, it really deserved to be enlarged and framed.

“You find it okay?” Kristoff called from the kitchen.

Anna startled, almost dropping the entire stack of neatly organized photos. With her heart hammering she put everything back where she was pretty sure she had found it, grabbed the fur and went back into the cabin proper.

“Yes, I did, thank you.”

He was looking at her carefully and Anna felt like admitting she had been snooping in his things might be a pretty terrible idea right now.

“I… um…” a thought struck her and she held up the fur. “What animal is this? I just can’t figure it out.”

The corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly upward.

“Artic wolf. About five years ago a pack wandered down the valley and that guy took a little too much interest in me.”

“What happened?”

Kristoff shrugged his broad shoulders. “Nothing too exciting. He just wandered into the clearing and really wanted the Martin I was in the process of unloading from my snowmobile sled. I tried to scare him off by shouting at him but he kept coming, so I had to grab my rifle.”

Anna’s eyes went wide. “Oh my god, did he attack you?”

“Um, sort of? He launched at me so I shot him before he could, you know… bite me.”

Anna shook her head slowly and looked back down at the fur in her hands. She hadn’t even thought about wolves. Come to think about it, there was probably a whole host of animals out there that would kill them if given the chance. 

Kristoff turned his attention back to the counter so Anna laid the fur on the floor in front of the fire and took a seat. He came over shortly after and set some meat to cook in a cast iron pan and rice in a pot.

“You want some vegetables? I have some canned peas I can stir into the rice?”

Anna smiled at that, enjoying the fact that he was asking for her input on dinner now. “Sure, that sounds great, even if canned pea’s taste super weird.”

“Weird?” he smiled at her. “They taste great.”

“Says the guy who doesn’t have access to fresh vegetables.”

His smile fell a little and Anna immediately regretted opening her mouth. Apparently, he didn’t like being teased about his life. She was about to apologize when he moved and pulled the rug back to go down to the cellar. She sighed and reminded herself once again to be polite.

Anna moved to get out of his way and he finished cooking in silence, then brought a steaming plate of food to the table and set it down in front of her.

“Thank you. I really appreciate this. Not… not just dinner, but all of it. The food, letting me stay, um… sharing your bed… and all that. I’m sorry again for invading your life so badly.”

“It’s fine,” he said softly, not lifting his eyes from his plate. 

Anna repressed a sigh and turned her attention to her own food. The meat was… well she had no idea what the hell she was eating. It was gamy but slightly tenderer than the first meal she had had here. And the rice and peas were exactly what she expected; decent, but lacking salt. 

She was halfway through her meal when he spoke.

“How is it?”

Anna looked up and met his eyes. “It’s good.”

He nodded and returned to eating. Anna shrugged and did the same. She was about three quarters finished when he spoke again.

“I keep meaning to start a garden. I’ve wanted to for a long time. But… I always seem so preoccupied with everything else to find time to get it started. Not to mention the growing season would be rather short for how much work it would be…” he shrugged, clearly not knowing what else to say about it.

Anna felt bad all over again for teasing him about the peas. Clearly it had bothered him more than she initially thought.

“Well, they say canned vegetables have just as much nutritional value as fresh, so… you know… you can easily manage without them. Errr, I mean you do, you do easily manage without them.”

His head nodded slowly. “Right.”

Anna sighed. His plate was empty and once again he had dished her in as much as himself. This time however, she really was full.

“Do you want to finish mine?”

He held her eyes for an almost uncomfortably long moment before he gave her a small nod. “Sure.”

Anna did her best not to watch him but it was hard. She supposed she should be cleaning up the dishes but her body refused to follow her command to stand. It wasn’t until Kristoff finished his last bite and took to his feet that Anna did the same.

He met her eyes and his head tilted slightly to the side as he appraised her.

“You look exhausted, Anna. Go settle yourself in bed.”

“I can help. It wont take too long if we both-”

“It’s okay,” he shook his head with a small smile. “I am just going to stoke the fire and do these in the morning. I’m tired too.”

She smiled back at him. “Okay. Thank you. And thank you for dinner. And… everything.”

“Don’t mention it,” he muttered and turned away to take the dishes to the kitchen.

Anna went to the bed and slid beneath the flannel covers, eagerly waiting for her furnace to join her. If he didn’t offer to hold her to keep warm, she was going to ask, because she needed sleep and the only way she was going to be able to accomplish it was if he was keeping her warm. That was the only reason. Warmth. Survival. It had nothing to do with anything else. The way her heart quickened when he held her was just her nerves. Yup, just nerves.

He joined her a few moments later and settled on his side. Anna bit her lip, about to ask when he spoke.

“Do you want to sleep together?” then added quickly, “So that you don’t get too cold?”

Anna grinned into the dark and did her best to keep her voice level. “Sure, that sounds good.”

The mattress shifted and Kristoff pressed against her back and settled his arm around her waist. 

“Thank you.”

“S’okay,” he yawned. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” Anna whispered.

She was still listening to his breathing, wondering when he was going to fall asleep, when unconsciousness claimed her.


End file.
